M Milk Bath Maternity

Hey 2021, long time no blog!
That was lame, sorry, I rely on the fact that nobody ever reads these! So this blog was drafted in June, I haven’t blogged since Mayish of last year but I have about 30 blogs drafted so the next few weeks will be me attempting to write blogs. Fun stuff.
But at least there’s tons to say about this fun milk bath photoshoot I did with a then very pregnant Mama M!
Mama M special requested a milk bath for her rainbow baby and I’ll admit I didn’t realize just how challenging it would be.

All the maternity milk baths you see on Pinterest take place in an actual bathtub, but, I have to big as dramatic as possible and had to shoot it in an actual full length blow up pool! Now, it’s been so long ago but I’m pretty sure when we did this shoot it was about two months after that 15 day flatten the curve so all pools were either sold out or they were $80 on amazon, because everyone was stuck home with their kids and was just trying to find a way to keep them busy.
Thankfully one of my long time clients/buddies had a blow up pool available for us to use, but the only hold up was I had to drive 45m out to the country to get it, ducks had been using it so it was extra dirty, andddd there was a small hole in the side. I can’t complain at all though, I was super fortunate she was even allowing me to use it! (and she had cleaned it up quiet a bit before I picked it up so I’m really not complaining, just getting those 1000 words lol)
The pool was so big we also had to set it up outside, instead of in my home studio, and we had to keep filling it with water, because of the small leak, AND it was threatening to rain the whole time we were shooting, BUT it was well worth it though to bring our vision to life.

Mama M was and always is the most complying model and was absolutely amazing when the water started getting cold and her neck started hurting. I can’t thank her enough for going out of her comfort zone to bring both of our visions to life, and I’d say I can’t wait to meet her sweet baby girl but I’m planning her first birthday cake smash next month!

G First Birthday Cake Smash

Good lord this blog was drafted in September of last year, even worse, I think it was shot months before that!Any who, here’s a super handsome little man with the prettiest blue eyes!
Baby G & his parents came to me for his Wild Ones themed First birthday Cake Smash and he was just the sweetest baby with such a big personality! He laughed at all my jokes, tolerated all his outfit changes, and loveddddd his cake! His parents were okay too I guess :)

Pregnancy Announcement

So I think it’s safe to share this families pregnancy announcement blog now, considering their baby boy is now one month old. Mama K is one of the MVP’s of CMP, I did her senior photos in High school (don’t want to admit how long ago that was), I shot her baby boy when he was first born, and after this announcement I was fortunate enough to shoot her maternity session!
I found this location on the way to my brothers house wayyyy out in the country and was dying to use it, so naturally when K & B asked me to shoot their pregnancy announcement I knew just the place!
These pregnancy announcement pictures came out perfect, but I did have the cutest models to work with! Big Brother O was very excited that he had a new baby on the way and I can’t thank these guys enough for entrusting me with their secret! I kept it wayyyy longer than necessary!!!

J At home newborn session

Things that happened just a month ago or so really seem like they happened a year ago at this point. Going through so many of my recent sessions I realize that even though everything still seems to be at a standstill, time has gone by insanely fast! Take this little handsome booger… after seeing some of his most recent photos his mama has shared, he doesn’t even look like the same baby anymore! This precious newborn boy now looks like a handsome full grown man and I’m so glad I was able to go over to his parents house for his newborn photos before he made the jump!

Sweet Baby J has some minor (what seems like minor now of course) hiccups when he was first born so we really hesitated on when we were going to do his newborn photos. We originally decided to wait a month to do his newborn photos but after seeing how much he changed in the first week Mama made the call to have his photos done early! I was fortunate enough that this amazing family allowed me into their home during such an insane time and despite what I can only imagine was sleep deprivation, both Mama and Papa both looked like super models and made everything so insanely easy! Baby J was such a great sleeper too, he was so well behaved through all his newborn photos and transitioned through sets with ease. We did a combination of jungle themed newborn photos and incorporated the fact that his father is a professional football player into his photoshoot but my favorite photos are definitely the family photos!

T Milk and Cookies Cake Smash

Two Cake Smashes in a row? You’re welcome!
One of my last sessions of last year was one I was actually really sad to do! The, hopefully for their sake, last of the DW children just turned one and she’s just as wonderful as the rest of the family. Baby T has all the spunk and energy of all the DW children combined and it’s probably lucky she was the last one, otherwise I don’t know how they’d keep up! (Actually, her Big Sister R is probably the spunkiest, but she wasn’t here for this session so I can’t compare) Her Mama came up with the creative idea of doing a Milk and Cookies themed Cake Smash and we still tried to keep it as natural and dainty as possible to keep the attention on little lady. Her Mama made all the adorable glass jars and while we considered only doing a big plate of cookies I couldn’t help but still throw a cake into the mix for her. Spoiler alert, her and all of her siblings were only interested in the store bought cookies.
Don’t be fooled by her drinking really cute out of her glass jar too, we had a lot of faith in her for not spilling it and the very first thing she did after those first few photos was knock the glass jar over and get it everywhere.

L Mickey Mouse Cake Smash

I feel like I say this about every session but Cake Smashes are definitely one of my favorites! Sadly, last year I only did about 3 to 4 a month, which sounds like a lot, but it’s not!!! Out of all the Cake Smashes I’ve ever done though I’ve literally only had a request for Mickey Mouse about 3 times, which is again, another big shocker. Especially with Mickey Mouse Club House being so big I was half expecting to do at least two a month (but last year was all about Mermaids and Neutrals) so I was really excited when Mama C requested this!!!

My very first CS session was Mickey Mouse and that was over 5 years ago and the set looked much different from nowadays but, still classic in my book! I was fortunate enough I had lots of decorations from a friends Babies Birthday party and was able to alter most of them to fit this theme. This little man was so incredibly sweet and if I had let him he would have sat there and picked at his cake all day, it was very obvious he loved the icing and was very talkative about it!

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A & Q Sunflower Maternity Session

This year I’ve gotten to knock lot off of bucket list, but by far this might be one of the things I’ve been waiting the longest to do! Nashville is known for its many beautiful parks but my God Sunflower Fields have been illusive to me. There are several farms that have them but generally, or to my understanding, a full fledge photoshoot there isn’t an option. When I actually found a promising one last year that grows sunflowers every year it turns out that the harvest hadn’t done good that year and they had nothing… SOOOO… after many years of waiting I was finally able to do a quick maternity photoshoot with the real life Prince Charming and Princess Cinderella! A & Q are a dream come true and I like to live vicariously through them and all their glory. Now that they’re expecting a baby girl, who has the best name, I feel like everything has come full circle! I can’t wait to meet sweet Baby A and can’t express how happy I am for both A & Q! Thank you guys for being such fantastic models and so willing to come out on such short notice!!!

If you’re here from Pinterest you’re going to be highly disappointed because the very last image is the only one of its kind, as the rest didn’t seem to look as good with the dramatic sky. Hopefully you still enjoy the rest of the images in this mini gallery though!

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Baby S Sunflower Milk Bath

Today is Mama J’s, otherwise known as Baby S, first Birthday and we’re all over here crying! I remember Mama M and I discussing her first birthday before she was born and sharing all the ideas we had for her first birthday photoshoot and Cake smash! One year later we definitely didn’t do any of them, however we’ve basically done everything else under the sun. I think she’s been on my blog, published and unpublished posts, more than anyone this year and next year we’ll be adding her baby sister B into the fix so you can expect to be heavily spammed by this family for many years to come!!!

After weeks of being torn between doing a fruit bath or a milk bath we compromised and are going to do both. Seeing as it’s August and basically Fall we decided to try and keep the florals away from the pastel realm and does it really matter what I type? Is anyone still reading? I care though, gotta hit those google keywords! Sunflowers! We decided on sunflowers and thankfully I have an abundance of fake ones and Mama M had some dollar store sunflowers she’s had for over 4 years to add to the mix! We went out to the same park we did her sisters gender reveal/pregnancy announcement and set up near the creek! J hates headbands so we were really worried about her keeping it on throughout her session but thankfully all the sunflowers and splashing around in the milk was enough to keep her distracted for about 5 minutes! Still haven’t gotten the smiling down, even after a year of modeling, but we have the smoldering down to a T! We’ll work on it next year, and hopefully next week we’ll be sharing her Cake Smash!

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M Family Session

This year has been the year of Baby number two for many families and none took me by surprise as much as the M families!

(A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one)

To see Baby E’s newborn session with his big sister and Mama check out the link below!

http://www.chelseameadowsphotography.com/blog/2019/4/26/e-newborn-session

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T, N, & R Announcement!

I’ve been having to keep lots of secrets for lots of people recently but I can FINALLY share the big news that the H family is growing by 1! Mama T is pregnant with Baby number 2 and told me when she was around 8 or so weeks I didn’t think I’d be able to keep it to myself… thankfully she also shared the big secret with some mutual friends so we could gossip about how excited we were about it!

It’s been forever since I’ve been able to do a gender reveal and somehow Mama T always manages to make things 10 times more glamourous. Between their incredibly coordinated outfits for Family photos and the amazing props she brought along with her I just basically had to show up and they did the rest of the work, I always feel very guilty working with them!

Capturing R’s first year was so amazing, I still have some of his Newborn Cake Smash photos in my portfolio today, I’m so honored they’ve stuck with me over the years and hope Baby number 2 likes me as much as R does!!! (Sometimes) I also hope they know that I’m going to be bullying my way into every part of her pregnancy now… maybe even the delivery room for Birth Photos… get ready T

Ballon - Vroom Vroom Balloon

Cards- Blossom and Pear

Wooden Rattle - Bannor Toys

Can anyone guess what she’s having?… All of you already know, I’m weeks late! The H family is expecting another little boy!!!

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B Mini Session

I started photography wanting to excessively working with professional models but I quickly dropped that narrow-mindedness and now 5 years later I work almost exclusively with children! It’s definitely been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made because working with kids is always a wild, unpredictable ride. The energy is definitely wasn’t on the youth, I feel like I always get a days worth of steps in working with kids and this little lady definitely gave me a run for my money! B and her Grandmother and Grandfather originally met me on a day a freak tsunami hit Nashville. The day started beautiful, got slightly overcast, and by the time we got to our session location it was pouring!!! It was also thundering very very loudly, enough to scare me, and even though we tried to wait it out, it just wasn’t going to happen. Despite all this madness going on little Miss B was amazingly friendly and open to meeting someone new and was so excited to take photos (though it didn’t happen that day). I actually kind of cheated by winning her over, it wasn’t my charming personality she like, but she loved looking at all my bows, trying on dresses, and singing Let it Go while spinning in said dresses. She was so very social and it was so sweet to see how crazy she was about her Grandparents, who were also the kindest most patient people. I kept telling them, this is Nashville weather, it’ll pass it 5 minutes… it didn’t pass. Though the made the long drive out to meet me they were super understanding and were completely understanding and willing to reschedule, despite them only being in town for a few days.

After having to reschedule two more times we finally managed to shoot on Easter morning and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect! Surprisingly there were also 100 other people out enjoying the nice weather, which kind of blew my mind because ya know… it was Easter Sunday. B, who had now had to wait 3 separate times for us to actually shoot, was a ball of energy and optimism for our photoshoot! She ran through the flowers probably a dozen times, picked several for her Grandmother and me, and once again spent the whole session twirling! Energy is wasted on the youth… I wish I got that excited about anything and had that much energy for… anything. She was the most perfect model and it was definetly worth the wait! It’s always so nice seeing children who are so well behaved, kind, and just absolutely LOVE the outdoors! She probably feel 5 times running through the field but just got right back up and kept on trucking! Her grandmother has told me that they plan on bringing her back to me at some point so I’m already planning on what fun and excited adventure we can all do together next time!

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E Newborn Session

I have had a few people who I started my newborn photography journey with contact me this year expecting their second child and that’s seriously the best compliment! Being a family photographer and newborn photographer has been so rewarding and the fact that there are those who started with me, when I wasn’t so good, and have continued to put their trust in me has been amazing. It’s been wonderful having them grown with me… but this one took me by COMPLETE surprise! Though Mama L and I are friends on FB I have not seen one post from here for at least a year so I completely missed this pregnancy and birth! (Even though she’s posted about it, thanks FB algorithm)  
I was lucky enough that she contacted me pretty soon after though and just a few days later she brought the Handsome Baby E to me along with his Big Sister C! I was completely taken back by how big C had gotten, how well spoken and polite she was, and the fact that she'll be 4 this year (which is actually much better than I thought because I could have sworn she was 5 and I was wondering how so much time had passed)! I think I was just in denial at how much time had passed because it makes me think of how old I actually am! I can’t tell you how wonderful it was that she was VERY big on saying thank you/yes ma’am, which is such a huge relief because it seems like we’re all sadly falling away form that! All of you who move to the south need to adapt to our manners…
Sadly Papa R couldn't make it to this session but Mama L came looking like a super model with a full nights sleep. I remember she was the same after giving birth to C, she came in full makeup, hair done, and in her Sunday best, which I can't even manage with zero kids...
Enough of my rambling, these might be some of my favorite sibling photos ever, I can't tell you how many times I said 'Oh my God' or 'Awwwwwww' during this session. Mama L told me when they got to my home studio that he had a safari themed nursery and had brought him an adorable elephant outfit to be photographed in by sadly it was slightly too big… but that gave me the chance to bring out a newborn prop I haven’t used in years!!! Last time I used the Elephant hat/doll was probably almost 4 years ago now but it has been lying in wait for this exact moment and it was so worth it!!!!

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E First Birthday

I used to pride myself on being able to write super descriptive blogs where I spilled every detail of my shoot and how they came to be but I think with age I’ve lost that ability (6 months makes a big difference guys!!!!) So I’m going to attempt to bring blogs back, and bring them back with a vengeance! Don’t go back and READ prior blogs, you can look… that way I won’t be judged off previous work

ANYWAYS!!! This session was seriously one to write home about and as much as I would like to take credit I literally have to thank this beautiful little ladies Mama for making it all happen! Mama B and I became friends about the time she found out the gender of this sweet little lady. We did her gender reveal together, she dropped off some nude cupcakes for a stylized shoot I was doing, and the rest is history! I’ve had the privilege of getting to experience so many special moments in their lives with them and the chance to watch her two children grow!!! She’s a wonderful friend and a very very talented artist and baker (Two Peas and Sweets Bakery)

Okay, back to the blog, I’m getting ahead of myself. This little ladies first birthday session was planned before she was born. Mama is basically a gypsy and has lived everywhere but her roots are in Arizona (don’t kill me if I get your families history wrong B, I’m not a stalker) and her Grand….mother used to have an alpaca farm (that sounds right). Her uncle even makes cactus art!!! Definitely a desert rat. When E was born she even had an extra special Aplaca/cactus swaddle!

When it came time to planning her First Birthday photoshoot Mama B somehow found an Alpaca farm, which was only about twenty minutes from Blakes house, go figure, and the women that owned it was kind enough to let us shoot there! We ended up getting lost along the way and managed to do this shoot in a record twenty minutes, which was probably for the best otherwise we would have stayed there all day. Baby E literally had zero interest in the Alpacas though and was more concerned with what they were eating and picking up as much mud as she could between her toes. The Alpacas literally had zero interest in her either and were more concerned about why this small creature was trying to shove their pellets into her mouth.

Again, this shoot was definitely like a fairytale and over the years we’re somehow going to have to one up this session. We’re already trying to figure out how we’re going to get an elephant for her 16th birthday

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T Family Session

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G Family Spring Session

No matter how many times I shoot with the G family it’s ALWAYS new and exciting! I always aim to make each session their most favorite of all the ones we’ve done and I always go into a session feeling slightly nervous on how I’m going to make this shoot different… Now… I feel like I’m always going to have to live up to this session!!!!

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Baby F 6 Month Session

I’ve spoken before about all the beautiful mothers you see on Instagram that are just big faker dakers and make you feel terrible about yourself… I hate to break it to you but… they exist. Mama C is one of those well dressed, fit, and pretty Moms that make you question your choices in life and if she truly did give birth just seven or eight months ago (don’t hate me if that’s wrong C). Besides just being drop dead gorgeous, she’s also such a pleasure to be around! It’s a shame I didn’t know her when she lived in Nashville!

The beautiful Ms. F is such a ham and is ALWAYS so happy, even when we ran into nap time, and always manages to break out in a toothy grin (even though she’s only got two teeth)! She is a true Southern Baby with her huge bows and vivid floral patterns and gave me soooo many great images that have already made their way into my online galleries!

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T Newborn Session

Baby T just turned 3 months the other day so I guess it’s time to share her Newborn Photos!!! All of the DW children are literally a carbon copy of each other, I feel like every blog I’ve ever written about them I keep telling them to have more children because they’re all so beautiful and well behaved but I think they’re finally stopping at this beautiful little lady! Sweet little Baby T was also the only child of theirs born in the fall so we made sure to incorporate some fall aspect into her session and I am utterly amazed at how hard she slept in the pumpkin!

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O & K Family Session

It always brings me such great joy when my newborns make their way back to me and I was SO happy to see Mama K and the handsome Baby O! O is now about half the size of his Mama, which isn’t a hard feat to accomplish, sorry K, wears a mans size 9 shoe, and despite what some photos might show, has lots of wisps of red in his hair! He was so well behaved for our session and even let me spend a little time solely photographing his beautiful mother while he stomped around and tried to find whatever mud puddle he could.

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O Cake Smash

Baby O was my first cake smash of 2019 and I was able to bring back an oldie Goldie set for him! Even though I put extra special love and care into making his cake he was more interested in the cut out One on the top than anything else. All the other damage was done by Mama and me!

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Baby R First Birthday

My handsome little Nephew turned one last month and spent the week getting lots of ouches in preparation for his birthday photos!

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